Settlement Ends Local “Debtor’s Prison” Bail and Fine Practices

Some of the systemic problems illuminated by the events in Ferguson, Missouri were in the unwieldy and ever-growing fines visited on poor defendants in that area. The same problems exist in cities and towns all over the country, and this story addresses inequities not only in fines but in bail in Moss Point, Mississippi.

A settlement has been reached in federal court that will prevent defendants in Moss Point from being jailed for misdemeanor arrest if they are unable to post a standardized bail. The settlement will resolve a “secured bail schedule” situation wherein effectively only poor defendants were detained.

The practice of charging standard bail amounts for certain offenses, said Chief U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr., violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and “constitutes bad public policy.”

Subsequently, the city has been ordered to release most misdemeanor defendants on their own recognizance and to refrain from jailing people for non-payment of fines, court costs, fees, and bond revocations until and unless legal procedures have been followed.

Alec Karakatsanis, co-founder of Equal Justice, said that Moss Point is not the only Mississippi town to use “secured money bonds” in this way. “The Constitution forbids it, and cities across the country are finally beginning to end the scourge of money bail,” Karakatsanis said.

Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center, said in a statement that the settlement “saved Moss Point taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees and allowed the city to avoid class-action damages that, we believe, would have amounted to several million dollars.” He expects that other similar suits will be filed against other cities.—Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor in Chief of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

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When the Department of Justice investigated the criminal justice system in Ferguson, Missouri, it found many practices that created antagonism and distrust between residents and the police and courts. Under these “debtor prison” practices, the poorer you are, the more likely you are to be imprisoned.